When Matt Mullenweg, Mary Hubbard, and Matías Ventura stepped into the San Francisco auditorium on December 2, the crowd felt the electric buzz of a major milestone. The three leaders, flanked by contributors from every corner of the globe, announced that the newest WordPress core version would stream out in real time, just as the audience watched. Imagine a software release that drops into the wild before the last line of code is checked in—WordPress made that happen for the first time.
WordPress Still Rules the Open‑Web Domain
In 2025, WordPress remained the engine behind the majority of the web. Roughly 43 percent of all sites run on the platform, and the CMS market share hovers near 60 percent. The top 1,000 sites saw adoption climb to 49.4 percent, a jump of 2.3 percent over last year. If you ever wondered whether WordPress still matters in a sea of alternatives, the numbers say otherwise. It’s no longer a niche player; it’s the backbone of the internet.
More Than 50 Percent of Sites Speak a Language Other Than English
WordPress’s global footprint grew beyond the English‑speaking world. For the first time, 56 percent of WordPress sites host content in a language other than English. Japanese surged to become the second‑most common language, with Japan owning 58.5 percent of websites and 83 percent of the CMS market there. This trend highlights the platform’s versatility and its ability to adapt to local cultures without compromising on features.
Ecosystem Explosion: Plugins, Themes, and Downloads
The plugin ecosystem is a living, breathing organism. Over 60,000 plugins are now available, and downloads are projected to reach 2.1 billion by year‑end—a staggering figure that underscores how integral extensions are to WordPress’s success. Block themes also saw a 40 percent uptick, crossing the 1,000‑theme threshold. These numbers reflect a community that is both creative and hungry for new ways to express content.
Record‑Breaking Contributor Numbers
WordPress 6.8 attracted 921 contributors, and 6.9 surpassed that with just over 900, including 230 newcomers. That’s a healthy influx of fresh talent, and it shows that the platform remains an open‑source playground where anyone can leave their mark. In the same breath, the keynote revealed that more than 700,000 sites had already updated to 6.9 by the end of the session—proof that the community is quick to adopt improvements.
AI Is No Longer a Feature, It’s the Foundation
AI is no longer a shiny add‑on; it’s woven into WordPress’s core architecture. Matt announced that a dedicated AI team, formed earlier this year, shipped four building blocks in just six months. The Abilities API exposes plugin, theme, and core capabilities to AI agents in a machine‑readable format. The WP AI Client provides a provider‑agnostic wrapper so developers can write prompts once and run them against OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or any other model. The MCP Adapter bridges the Abilities API with AI providers via the Model Context Protocol, allowing assistants to understand and act within WordPress. Finally, the AI Experiments plugin, now on the repository, offers a sandbox for developers to test AI features.
Telex: Turning Words Into Gutenberg Blocks
During the keynote, a demo of Telex captured the room’s imagination. Telex translates natural language into Gutenberg blocks, letting users build complex layouts without writing code. Matt showed Nick Hamze building a Lego price calculator and a Google Calendar integration in minutes. The demo was a perfect illustration of what AI can do: accelerate creativity, reduce friction, and open up the platform to non‑developers.
What’s Next for AI in WordPress?
The AI panel teased several upcoming features. A Workflows API will let developers string together multiple abilities, enabling sophisticated automation. Collaborative editing with AI assistance will allow teams to co‑author content in real time, powered by the WP AI Client now moving into core. While the interface still hides the full power of AI, the groundwork is laid for a platform that thinks as a partner, not just a tool.
WordPress Around the World: Conferences, Education, and Youth
WordPress’s global community is as vibrant as its codebase. This year, 81 WordCamps spanned 39 countries, with over 5,200 volunteers and more than 100,000 participants. The Learn.wordpress.org platform served 1.5 million users, and engagement time jumped 32 percent after WordCamp US 2025. Campus Connect brought WordPress into universities, allowing students at Universidad Fidélitas in Costa Rica to earn academic credit for contributing to open source. In Nicaragua, Youth Day gathered 75 children and teens who co‑created their first WordPress sites, a testament to the platform’s accessibility.
Infrastructure Improvements: Faster, Safer, Simpler
WordPress is also tightening its ship. Plugin reviews now finish in under seven days, thanks to AI‑assisted processes that handle roughly 100 more submissions weekly. A 24‑hour safety window for auto‑updates gives developers a grace period to catch early issues before a wide rollout. The WordPress Playground grew to 1.4 million users from 227 countries, adding a file browser, a visual gallery of blueprints, and a stable CLI, making experimentation easier than ever.
Community Q&A Highlights
Owning Your Domain Is Like Owning a Piece of the Internet
Mullenweg stressed that a domain is your digital real estate. He encouraged buying a domain even for newborns, warning that without one you risk becoming a “digital sharecropper.” The point is simple: control your online identity.
Agentic Web and Micropayments
As AI agents start browsing and acting on websites, Mullenweg suggested serving markdown versions of pages to simplify AI consumption. He also floated the idea of embedding micropayments for content attribution, a forward‑thinking approach to monetization in an AI‑driven ecosystem.
Open Social Platforms as a Blueprint
Bluesky emerged as a positive example, where users can register with their own domain as a username. Mullenweg noted that X has improved its handling of external links, hinting that social platforms may soon adopt similar openness.
Explore WordPress 6.9 on WordPress.com
WordPress 6.9 is live on WordPress.com, and the platform’s new features are documented in detail for site owners and developers alike. The release embodies a future where AI integration, global accessibility, and developer efficiency converge. If you missed the livestream, the full recording is available above; otherwise, dive in and experience the next chapter of the open‑web revolution.
Looking ahead, WordPress is poised to become the default canvas for anyone who wants to build, share, and innovate on the web. With AI foundations now embedded, a growing global community, and infrastructure that keeps pace with developers’ needs, the platform is set to shape the digital landscape for years to come.
